The Communicative Function of Legal Transplants in Mixed Legal Systems

Abstract

The article analyzes the definition of the communicative function of law from the point of view of legal communication between the dependent legal systems of the former colonies. In this context, the “evergreen issue” arises about legal transplantation, the legal transfer of norms and institutions and reception of nomadic legal constructs. The modern comparative lexicon uses three types of metaphors related to the interaction of legal systems and their law hybridization: anthropomorphic, communicative and mechanical metaphors. Among the best-known cases of legal transplantation, the authors pay attention to the spread of codes, the diffusion of common law, and the emergence of mixed legal systems. They explore the positivist concept of “legal transplants,” which appeared in comparative discourse thanks to the theory of Alan Watson. The article discusses the comparative opposition to this theory — the so-called cultural concept of legal transplants (transferists vs. culturalist debate), as well as the musical metaphor “legal transposition” and the process of diffusion of law in dependent legal systems. The practice of legal transplants in mixed common law systems and their application in practice are analyzed in national jurisdictions. The article shows criminal legal bijuridism and the process of the so-called “diffuse codification” in India, Canada, Australia and other British former colonies, which is an example of codistics communication of dissimilar political and legal cultures and circulation of model codes between them. In conclusion, attention is drawn to the discourse of the effectiveness, applicability and effectiveness of transplants. It is concluded that the success — failure discourse of legal transplants depends on the degree of communicativeness of transplanted and receptive constructs, their ability to “speak” in an understandable language for the host cultural environment of law.